Procedural Pain Management During Tenotomy for Congenital Talipes Equinovarus.

The majority of infants with congenital talipes equinovarus (CTEV) require tenotomy of the tendoachilles. The pain response of this procedure in the awake infant has not been previously reported. In this observational study, multimodal pain management strategies, including oral sucrose, oral paracetamol, topical anesthetic, local anesthetic, a pacifier (dummy), and swaddling, were used.

Somatosensory Test Responses and Physical and Psychological Functioning of Children and Adolescents with Chronic Non-neuropathic Pain: An Exploratory Study.

Objectives: This study was designed to establish preliminary feasibility testing of a set of inherently benign somatosensory stimulus-response tests (to cutaneous and deep stimuli) for bedside or office evaluation of pain disorders in children and adolescents. Associations between, and the relative influence of, cutaneous somatosensory testing (SST) responses, deep SST responses, and psychological factors (depression, pain-related catastrophizing) on pain outcomes (worst pain intensity, pain-related disability) were considered.

Methods: Sixty participants (6 to 18 y) were recruited from the pediatric chronic pain clinic.

In search of risk factors for chronic pain in adolescents: a case-control study of childhood and parental associations.

Objectives: This study was designed to investigate whether an individual and parental history of functional pain syndromes (FPS) is found more often in adolescents suffering from chronic pain than in their pain-free peers.

Methods: Our case-control study involved 101 adolescents aged 10-18 years. Cases were 45 patients of the Chronic Pain Clinic at Sydney Children's Hospital with diverse chronic pain disorders.

Are children who play a sport or a musical instrument better at motor imagery than children who do not?

Objective: Playing a sport or a musical instrument is presumed to improve motor ability. One would therefore predict that children who play a sport or music are better at motor imagery tasks, which rely on an intact cortical proprioceptive representation and precise motor planning, than children who do not. The authors tested this prediction.